Quirks

I've been tagged by my sister Melinda. Here are some quirks about me. Please keep in mind that they are not in any particular order. If fact, they are arranged in random order. (oxymoron)

1 - My High School English teacher taught me to say "reared" instead of "raised". She said, you raise cattle and you rear children. Now, every time I hear "raised" in reference to people, I cringe and every time I say "reared" I feel weird.

2 - I love whip cream, whipped topping, or cool whip. I like to put a huge pile of it on my pie. Interesting that it is the exact opposite of my sister.

3 - I don't like nuts. Nuts taste ok but I don't like how the little pieces of nuts linger around in your mouth for hours. Not in cookies, not in cakes, not in fruit cake, not in ice cream. I do, however, like nuts in my peanut butter.

4 - I hate swimming pools. I don't like swimming in water that a thousand other people have swam in. If you want me to be more specific, I can, but it will completely gross you out and make you a pool hater too. If you want more detail, send me an email.

5 - I hate getting my fingers dirty or sticky. I hardly ever lick my fingers. I use a spoon to spoon out cookie dough. I would rather eat a donut with a fork and knife than get my fingers all sticky. I like Jerry Seinfeld's idea of eating candy bars with a fork and knife so you don't have to get chocolate all over your fingers.

6 - I am amazed at how often I can associate something in real life with an episode of Seinfeld.

I'm not going to tag anyone because my sister tagged all the people I would have tagged.

Here are the rules.
1. Link the person(s) who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules on your blog.
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag some fellow bloggers by linking them.
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger's blogs letting them know they've been tagged.

funeral

There is nothing like attending a funeral to put your life back into prospective. This weekend I attended the funeral of my Uncle Ron Carter. This is my uncle on my father's side. Ron Carter was the father of 8 children. Five boys and 3 girls. As each of the children got up to speak, each of them mentioned how important the family was to their father. Each of them had their own favorite saying, favorite event that was emblazoned in their minds that engulfed the feeling of what their Dad meant to them. As they told these stories, talked about mannerisms, and discussed childhood nicknames, I couldn't help but think about my own roll as a father in my family. What stories would be told about me? How would I be viewed by my kids? What memories would they have of me? I am almost positive that the memories that I have and the lessons that I want them to remember will not be the ones told at my funeral. As we listened (I say we because Coby and Savanna were with me) I could see Savanna writing on a small piece of paper. As I peaked over my shoulder to see what she was doing, I discovered that she was writing down all of the nick names that I used for my kids. This brought a smile to my face and gave me the assurance that maybe I was on the right track.

I have always looked up to the cousins that I have in the Uncle Ron family. I still remember when I was little and the BIG Carter Cousins came over to our house to have lunch. I remember they were all really tall and really good at basketball. I wanted to be just like them. One very vivid memory was when we had a bowl of chips and one of the Carter boys picked up the chip and put the whole chip in their mouth. WOW, that was awesome. I couldn't do that. Latter on in life when I got a little older, I used the ONE BITE technique of eating a chip and that is when I realized, it wasn't that hard. :-) I don't know where I was going with that last comment, I just put it out there.

After the funeral service I had a sad feeling. Not that I was devastated for the passing of my uncle Ron, but that I wished I had gotten to know there family better, because they were all very "GOOD" people. I could tell that all of the children of Ron and Laree Carter were, in the words of my Dad, "The salt of the earth".

One final thought, what does, "Shoot Luke, the sky's full of pigeons." mean and where did it come from?

Ready for Christmas?

I think I have mentioned this in my blog before but I have learned to look for gifts for kids and my wife all year round. I don't just shop the last week before Christmas to get the gifts, I am looking for things all year. Unfortunately, I have run out of gift ideas for this year. Especially for my wife. I normally have a notepad full of gift ideas for Deanna but with her birthday and Anniversary this summer, I have used up all of the good gift ideas. Now, my list is empty and I'm very worried about it. I have the regular gift ideas that have been on the list forever like tennis gear, a car starter, kindergarten stuff but I don't have anything exciting and new. I pride myself in getting her something that she didn't know she wanted, but will love to have. I know what you are thinking, "why don't you just ask her what she wants?". I have asked her several times and the responses so far have been that she would like some piece of clothing. Now, I have been trained and taught from Stacy and Clinton from What not to wear, so I know that I can not just pick out a piece of clothing and expect it to fit. The process of buying clothes requires trying on every piece to make sure that it fits in all of the right places. So, I am not buying clothes. I have also decided not to buy gift cards. I know that if I tell everyone that I am buying my wife gift cards for Christmas, I would have and uprising in the female community that would eclipse the uproar of an angry crowed of disgruntled factory workers.

I guess I'll just have to keep listening for clues to find out what she wants. Oh, one last thing. I was given the advise a few years back, that I should never give my wife a gift that is normally a household item. One year I gave my wife a new kitchen faucet for a gift for her birthday or mothers day or something, (which we needed really badly) and all of the ladies in the office thought I was a clod. So, I try and stay away from these types of gifts too.

If any of you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Movie Review

As a new addition to my blog. I am now writing about current movies I have watched. I really haven't watched a movie for over 6 months so, I am guessing, that these reviews will be few and far between.

The movie I am reviewing today is "High School Musical 3".




I'll start off by saying that this movie is rated G. Even with a G rating you never know what you are going to see or hear. I am very thrilled to report that it lived up to it's rating. I thought the movie had awesome music, great dance scenes and a good storyline and ending. I would recommend going and seeing the movie. You can also review it on Screen It.

Something else I really liked about it was that the boys that were dancing and singing in the movie were actually cool. When the actors needed to look like they were good at basketball, they were actually really good. Most of the time, they get an actor and try to make them look like they are good at basketball. For example, Michael J Fox playing basketball. He is supposed to be good, but it is obvious that he is not. Also, the boys singing and dancing in this movie show young boys and youth that it can look cool to dance. The dancing scenes were macho when they needed to be and graceful in others.

My only complaint was actually with the movie theater itself. If you go into a movie theater, you expect AWESOME sound and effects. For some reason, the only speakers that were audible were the very front speakers. The music was awesome but without full surround sound, it sounded very flat. I felt I could get better sound out of my hoky speakers on my computer than we had at the movie. I complained twice to management but they just said, "That is just how they must have designed the movie."

Two thumbs up from me on this movie.

Enjoy.

Book Club

For all of you who know me to any degree, you know that I do not enjoy reading books. I am a little dyslexic and I feel I am a slow reader. Reading to me is a chore and may even be hard work. What I am about to tell you may be a huge surprise so please take a minute to take the last bite of the cookie that is in your hand and sit down. Make sure that the glass of milk next to your keyboard is out of striking distance.

I have joined a book club.

AARRRGFGGHHHHH!!!!! Splatttt!!!!! Curpluink!!!! Curfuffle!!!!

I warned you.

Yes, 5 manly, matcho, masculine, ruff and tumble dudes have organized a book club exclusively for men. The first book that was recommended by this group of raging, robust males was "Enders Game". And, if you are a current subscriber to my Blog, you would know that this book is one of the only books that I have re-read in my life. Therefore, when I found out that this book club would be reading books like this, I decided to join.

Last month we read "Never Cry Wolf" which was a good book. It is funny and easy to read. We had great discussions about wolves, politics and hunting. (interestingly enough, none of us hunt, but we could if we had to)

This month, we will be reading, "Me and the Geezer". We will see if the other brave gentlemen enjoy this book about baseball as much as I did.

The interesting thing about Me and the Geezer is that it was written by my Uncle, Ron Carter. The story is written from the son's prospective which would be my cousin. The Geezer is Ron Carter himself as the father. Some of you might already know that Ron Carter is a notable author which wrote the "Prelude to Glory" series.

Grand Champion

Every year at Sawtooth Elementary there is a pumpkin decorating contest. Yes, decorating because if it was pumpkin carving then after about 2 days the pumpkins that are displayed in the library would start to rot and stink. So, all of the kids are invited to decorate a pumpkin. This year Savanna decided that she wanted to decorate a pumpkin like a porcupine. Hummm, not the easiest but probably a very creative idea. I pondered over many ideas and even scoured the internet looking for an idea for a porcupine pumpkin. You may all be astonished to find out that there really aren't that many Porcupine Pumpkins out there in circulation and believe me, I employed all of my internet searching talent to find something to spark some creativity. I really didn't find anything to help me out of this artistic hole so I decided to just make it up. We went to the store and picked up some wooden skewers, googly eyeballs and some play-doh. This is what we came up with as a finished product.



The pumpkin sat at the end of a bookshelf in the library for a week and on the final day I received a phone call from Savanna. We had one a prize for our entry. Not just any prize. We were really thinking we would get something dorky like, "Most Porcupinee'est". We received the award of "Grand Champion". This is not just an award they give out willy nilly. They only give out 2 of these per year. One for the K - 3 grade and one for the 4 - 6 grades and Savanna's won Grand Champion for the 4 -6 grades.




I have mixed emotions. I am thrilled that we won, of course, but this also means that Dad will be expected to create a high level of pumpkin decorating prowess for years to come. I don't know if I'll be able to match the success we had this year. Maybe I should do as Dennis Miller always says. "Always be closing!" And Seignfield said on his TV program that if you had a great laugh off of one of your jokes, quit on a high note. "That's it for me folks, you've been great!"

Clint Carter for President?

I think someone nominated me for President and there is a lot of people out there willing to vote for me. Watch this news clip!!!